With the King's supporting cast struggling, the Cavs are as vulnerable as ever against the East

Tyronn Lue has opened two of the four games against the Indiana Pacers with starting lineups the Cavs hadn't used all season.

If you're the type who tends to see the good in everything (I admire you), you probably believe the Cavs have been in control for the majority of the last three games of their first-round series against Indiana.

You'll also point out that if the series goes seven, two of the last three games would be at Quicken Loans Arena, and the Cavs are still heavy favorites to advance.

The more realistic view of what we've witnessed in the last eight days is that the Cavs are very fortunate to head into Wednesday night's Game 5 with the series tied at 2.

Friday night, Cleveland blew a 17-point halftime lead during an ugly 92-90 loss in which the Cavs scored 33 points in the final two quarters.

In Game 4 Sunday night, the Cavs' 10-point halftime lead had been squandered 14 seconds into the fourth quarter, and it took some late heroics by Kyle Korver to avoid going down 3-1 in the series.

And you might remember that in Game 2, the Cavs led by 18 points in the first quarter and 16 in the third, only to give Indiana and Victor Oladipo the chance to tie the game via a 3-point attempt that was off the mark with 27.5 seconds left.

Yes, it's been ugly — the Cavs are averaging 93.5 points and shooting 44.4% from the field in the series.

There has been a lot about which we can scratch our heads, and quite a few signs that this roster was even more flawed than we believed after an up-and-down regular season.

• LeBron James has been mostly brilliant, averaging 32.5 points, 11 rebounds and 8.8 assists per contest, while shooting 54.1% from the field.

His teammates have been anything but, with per-game norms of 61 points, 27.2 rebounds and just 9.5 assists. James' supporting cast is making 40.7% of its field goals against Indiana (90 of 221), and 32.7% of its 3-pointers (35 of 107).

• Kevin Love has been mostly atrocious. The All-Star is 17-for-47 from the field (36.2%), has scored only 48 points and has 11 turnovers. And in the post, he seems more likely to get his shot blocked or get stripped than he does actually making something good happen.

• J.R. Smith, who started the series coming off the bench, is the Cavs' third-leading scorer in the series at 10 points per game. Despite giving us one of the highlights of the season Sunday night, Swish is hitting only 38.5% of his shots and 34.6% of his 3s against Indy.

• Tyronn Lue has opened Games 1 and 4 with starting lineups the Cavs didn't try once during the regular season. In Game 1, it was a quintet of LeBron, Love, George Hill, Rodney Hood and Jeff Green. In Game 4, Hill, Hood and Green were replaced by Jose Calderon, Korver and Smith.

Granted, injuries — to Korver in Game 1 and Hill in Game 4 — forced Lue's hand, but the coach hasn't been a model of consistency in the series.

Sunday night, the Cavs dusted off Tristan Thompson for seven early minutes, and the Cavs outscored the Pacers by seven points in that stretch — and we didn't see Thompson on the court the rest of the game.

In 48 minutes with Nance and Green on the court at the same time in Round 1, the Cavs have a net rating of -17.2 — meaning Indy is outscoring them by more than 17 points per 100 possessions. The Cavs' defensive rating in that stretch is an ugly 122.6.

There's a lot — too much? — not to like about the way the Cavs have started the postseason, but even with all of the above factored in, we remain reasonably confident the Cavs will advance.

Should that happen, they'll face top-seeded Toronto or eighth-seeded Washington in Round 2, and neither is going to be favored against LeBron James.

At this point, the only scary team in the Eastern Conference is Philadelphia, whose two best players — Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid — are competing in their first postseasons.

Not to sound like a broken record, but it's possible — likely, even — that when the NBA Finals tip off May 31, we'll look back on all of these questions and concerns and laugh, because LeBron will again have led the Cavs back to the league championship series.

What these Cavs have taught us this season, though, is that they're capable of anything — including losing to a No. 5 seed in the first round.

We're still not betting against LeBron and we still like the Cavs' Finals odds, but this is as vulnerable as they've seemed against the East in the last four years.

When James gets help, the Cavs usually win.

But help is a lot harder to come by in 2017-18.

You can follow me on Twitter for sports information and analysis, and to give me your more optimistic Cavs takes.

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